
Side Lights of Maryland History 
THE DAVIS FAMILY 

AND COAT OF ARMS 



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SIDE LIGHTS 

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MARYLAND HISTORY 



THE DAVIS FAMILY 

AND COAT OF ARMS 

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Side Lights of Maryland History 
THE DAVIS FAMILY 

AND COAT OF ARMS 



(Reprinted from the Baltimore Sun of July 17, 1904, and by special 

permission of the author, Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson, 

by whom the article is copyrighted, 1904.) 

Arms — Sable, three nag's heads, heads erased arg. 
Crest — A wolf salient arg. 



HE Welsh Davises derive their descent, 
according to the best authorities, from 
the Prince of Powis, the opponent of 
Ethelfrid, King of Northumberland, 




at the battles of Chester and Bangor, about the 
commencement of the seventh century. Nine- 
teenth in descent from Prince Brachwel of Powis 
was Meilir Gryg, direct ancestor of David, son of 
John ap David of Llivior, who, according to the 
Welsh custom, assumed the modern surname of 
Davies in the year 1637 when signing a deed of 
family settlement. 

English authorities, claim that this Welsh line 
can be traced back to those brave Britons who 
lined the coast of Kent to oppose the landing of 



Julius Caesar, but the record as given starts a few 
centuries before the Norman Conquest, beginning 
with Prince Rhodri "Molwynog," the cognomen 
meaning " Welsh blood being up." He settled on 
the north of the Severn after his removal from 
Cambrian Wessex, where many of the Britons 
who preferred liberty to the foreign yoke followed 
their chief. 

His great-grandson, Rhodri Mawr, or "the 
great," divided Wales into three distinct royalties 
for his three eldest sons, Cadell, Avarawd and 
Mervyn, 

The Davises of Welsh origin, of Hope and 
Marsh, in Shropshire, England, bear the following 
arms : A goat argent, horned or, standing on a 
child of the same, swaddled gules, and feeding on 
a tree eradicated vert, a crescent for difference. 

Crest — On a mount vert a goat couchant argent, 
under a tree proper. 

This line descends from David, whose son Hugh 
ap David (Davis) of Hope had a son William ap 
Hugh, whose heir Jeuan ap William of Hope 
married Alson, daughter of John Hewes. 

He was succeeded by David ap Jeuan, of Marshe, 
in com. Salop, who married Eliun, daughter of 
John Williams. 

Reynold Davys, the son and heir, married Ellen, 
daughter of James Morris, who had sons Edward 
and James Davis. Of these, James married Miss 
Martyn and had a son, John Davis. 

Although the late George Lachlin Davis stated 

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in his account of the early emigrants that the 
Davises of Mount Hope did not leave the princi- 
pality of Wales until after 1720, we find an early 
Davis, with the very suggestive Welsh name of 
Evan Davis, receiving a patent for 200 acres of 
land on the Severn in the year 1672. 

The similarity of the names of their estates 
would suggest that the Davises of Hope in Great 
Britain were forebears of the Davises of Mount 
Hope in Maryland. This is an interesting point 
for further investigation. 

Whether or not the various original settlers of 
this name came from Wales originally does not 
concern us. 

The Davis name has been prominent in the 
annals of Maryland ever since the days of the first 
notable assembly whose records have been pre- 
served to us, for in the year 1637 John Davis sat 
as a representative for St. Marie's Hundred, while 
the several successive years Thomas Davis con- 
tributed his services in molding the foundations of 
our government. 

These early members of the Davis family in 
Maryland were from Virginia, and probably sons 
of James Davis, of Henrico, Gentleman, who came 
to Virginia in the good ship George in the year 
1617. The records show that several of the 
Davises came from the Old Dominion into Mary- 
land, and were perhaps kinsmen of Sir William 
Davis, of Bristol, England, to whom letters from 
Virginia are still extant. 

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After the resurvey between Maryland and 
Virginia, lands in Somerset county were granted 
these two brothers by the Lord Baltimore, their 
estates being previously on the Accomac side. 
His Lordship's rent rolls show that 7,000 acres in 
Somerset county alone were patented to members 
of the Davis family. 

On both sides of the Chesapeake members of 
this distinguished name were large landholders 
and lived in the lavish way peculiar to the Colonial 
gentry. The Davis men were from earliest times 
conspicuous in the military affairs of the Province. 
In the year 1667 we find Capt. Hopkins Davis 
commanding a company of foote in Choptank and 
Miles river, Talbot county, and Capt. John Davis, 
of the same county, martialling his men against 
attack. Among the men of this name who were 
paid by the Assembly of Maryland for public 
services to the Province prior to 1685 were George 
y Davis, Griffith Davis, John Davis, Thomas Davis, 
William Davis, Samuel Davis and Jonas Davis. 

In the year 1694 John Davis was appointed 
commissioner and justice of the peace for trial and 
cause for Talbot county, of which he was also a 
military officer. 

While it has been claimed that the Western 
Shore Davises did not arrive in Maryland until 
much later than those on the Eastern Shore, the 
Colonial records disprove this, as above shown. 
As early as 1694 John Davis was a justice of 
Prince George's county. The names of Samuel 

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and John Davis appear in a list of loyal subjects 
in Somerset county in 1689, in which year a 
petition for a Protestant government was addressed 
to the King. While the Davis men filled with 
fidelity many civil offices of importance and 
served their government on the Colonial field, 
including the French and Indian wars, it is 
especially notable for the large number of com- 
missioned officers in the Revolutionary service. 
Among these were Col. Richard Davis, 1778 ; 
Capt. John Davis, Snow Hill Battalion 1777 ; 
Capt. Phillip Davis, Thirteenth Battalion, Kent 
county, 1778 ; Capt. Richard Davis, of Washmgton 
county ; Capt. John Davis, of Wicomico Battalion ; 
First Lieutenant Nixon Davis, First Lieutenant 
Jesse Davis, of Worcester county, 1776 ; First 
Lieutenant Amos Davis, of Washington county, 
1778 ; First Lieutenant Lodowich Davis and 
Second Lieutenant Griffith Davis, Middle Battalion, 
. Montgomery county ; First Lieutenant James 
Davis, of Dorchester county ; Philemon Davis, a 
sergeant in the mounted company that marched 
from Queen Anne's county February 3, 1776 ; 
Lieut. -Col. Richard Davis, of Frederick county 
troops, 1776 ; Ensign Rezin Davis, of Frederick, 
1776 ; Second Lieutenant Richard Davis, Baltimore 
county, 1776 ; Ensign Alexander Davis, com- 
missioned second lieutenant August, 1777 ; Ensign 
William Davis, Baltimore Battalion, 1777 ; Richard 
Davis, of Washington county, appointed to pur- 
chase provisions for the United States Army, 1778 ; 

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Robert Paine Davis, ensign of Capt. Thomas 
Watkins' company, on West river, in Anne 
Arundel county, 1779. There were other officers 
and no less than 50 privates by the name of Davis 
who served in the Maryland troops during the 
War of Independence. 

While from the foregoing we can have no doubt 
as to the patriotic blood of the Davis men, yet 
more than once the name is enrolled among those 
who held the scales of justice, and while so many 
of the family were giving their lives to their 
country's service Samuel Davis, of Kent, and 
Richard Davis, of Washington county, were filling 
the honorable and important office of justice of the 
county courts in the year 1778. 

In the journal of the Council of safety reference 
is made to Captain Davis as "sea commander." 
While one of the early rectors of William and 
Mary Parish was Thos. Davis, we find Rev. Samuel 
Davis preaching to the early Presbyterian flock in 
Somerset county, where his name is still revered 
as one who helped to plant the vine in the virgin 
soil of the New World. 

The various branches of the Davis family in 
Maryland intermarried with the other representa- 
tive Colonial families, and particularly is this the 
case in the branch in Anne Arundel county. Here 
we find Richard Davis marrying Ruth Warfield, 
daughter of John Warfield and his wife, Ruth 
Gaither, whose ancestors first settled in Virginia 
and took part in the affairs of that colony. The 

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children of this marriage of Richard Davis and 
Ruth Warfield were Richard, John, Thomas, Caleb, 
Elizabeth and Ruth Davis. Caleb Davis arrived 
at man's estate, like others of his family, in time 
to fight in the Revolutionary War. He married 
Lucretia Griffith, daughter of Orlando Griffith and 
his wife, Katharine Howard, daughter of Capt. 
John Howard, Jr., and Katharine Greenbury. 
Ruth Davis, sister of Caleb Davis, married Joshua 
Warfield, the son of Benjamin. Elizabeth Davis 
married John Marriott. 

Other marriages of Davises with well-known 
families was that of Ephraim Davis to Elizabeth 
Howard ; Allen Bowie Davis and Rebecca Comfort 
Dorsey, daughter of Chief Justice Thomas Beadle 
Dorsey and his wife Milcah Goodwin. 

As in so many old Maryland families, the 
Davises of the present generation find their 
paternal and maternal ancestors allied by kinship. 
In the case of the Democratic nominee for the 
Vice-Presidency we find his Davis forebears 
intermarrying with the same blood that descends 
to him through his mother, Louisa Brown, the 
daughter of John Riggs Brown and Sarah Gass- 
away. This Sarah Gassaway was the daughter of 
Brice J. Gassaway and Katharine Warfield, Brice 
J. Gassaway was a son of Nicholas Gassaway and 
brother of Capt. John Henry Gassaway and Lieut. 
Nicholas Gassaway, all officers in the Maryland 
Line. Through his Gassaway ancestry Hon. 
Henry G. Davis and his children, as well as Gov. 

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Edwin Warfield, Hon. Arthur Pue Gorman, Mr. 
William H. Gorman and others, trace back to the 
Dorseys, Howards, Ridgelys, Worthingtons and 
Greenburys. Contemporary with these and the 
eldest living representatives of the John Riggs 
Brown line are Mr. Vachel Brown and Mr. J. 
Frank Brown, of Baltimore. 

The various Colonial progenitors of the Davis 
family of Maryland include those who filled every 
important office in the gift of Lord Baltimore or of 
the people, hence it is only history repeating itself 
when we find in our own generation the repre- 
sentatives of the old governing families of the 
Province continuing to maintain the precedent set 
them by their worthy forebears. Every man or 
woman who is representative is as sure to have 
strong, notable ancestors as that like produces 
like. 

Among the other distinguished sons of Mary- 
land of this name that of Henry Winter Davis will 
always shine forth as a bright particular star. 
This eminent scholar, statesman and orator has 
always been marked as one of the greatest of 
Marylanders. His father was Rev. Henry Lyon 
Davis, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
president of St. John's College, at Annapolis. 
His mother was Jane Brown Winter. Henry 
Winter Davis married Miss Nancy Morris, daughter 
of Mr. John B. Morris, of Baltimore, by whom he 
had two daughters. Ephraim Davis, who settled 
at Greenwood in the year 1755, had a son Thomas, 

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who, during Washington's administration, raised 
a company and marched to Pennsylvania in 1794 
to assist in suppressing the whisky insurrection. 
During his absence he was elected a member of 
the Legislature, and was also an elector of the 
Senate under the old Constitution. He was a 
member of the Governor's Council and a most 
important man in his day, being, among other 
things, Associate Judge of the County Court. 
His son, Allen Bowie Davis, like his father, was a 
man conspicuous in the official life of his genera- 
tion. He was president of the State Board of 
Public Works, member of the constitutional con- 
vention and one of the first trustees and later 
president of the State Agricultural Society. The 
Hon. David Davis, Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court, is another distinguished son of 
Maryland. He was born in Cecil county, Mary- 
land, and in early manhood removed to Illinois. 
He was a member of the constitutional convention 
and a delegate to the National Republican Conven- 
tion in Chicago in 1860. Judge Davis was appointed 
by President Lincoln Judge of the Supreme Court 
of the United States in 1862. He was elected 
United States Senator to succeed John A. Logan. 
While, as we have seen, the name of Davis has 
been distinguished in the legislative hall and on 
the field, the Hon. Henry Gassaway Davis is the 
first son of Maryland to attain the high distinction 
of being nominated for the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States. He was born on the family estate, 

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Goodfellowship, located in Howard county, but 
which originally lay in Anne Arundel county. 
This estate had been patented to Joshua Brown 
and Alexander Randall early in 1700 — about 1720. 
Later Caleb Davis, father of the Hon. Henry G. 
Davis, bought the part which had belonged to 
Randall and which adjoined the lands of his 
wife's family, the Browns. On this ancestral 
estate our distinguished Marylander was born and 
lived until the panic of 1835 swept independence 
from his father, who sold his home and everything 
he possessed that others might not lose through 
him. 

With a heritage of cultured and distinguished 
ancestry on both sides and the high standards of 
life set him by a worthy father our new candidate 
for the Vice-Presidency faced the change of 
circumstances bravely and went to work as many 
a gentlemen's son had done before him and 
because of the superior blood that was in him he 
soon attained the success which comes of earnest 
effort. From one post of honor to another he has 
been chosen to the second highest nomination in 
in this country, and it is with pleasure that Mary- 
land claims him as her own son and the represent- 
ative of some of her most distinguished families. 
Among the distinguished forebears of Hon. Henry 
Gassaway Davis are Col. Nicholas Greenberry, 
Deputy Governor of the Province, 1692, Keeper of 
the Great Seal and Member of his Lordship's 
Council ; Col. Edward Dorsey, Keeper of the Great 

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Seal, Judge in the High Court of Chancery, etc.; 
Capt. John Howard, of the Colonial Militia ; Col. 
Nicholas Gassaway, Capt. John Worthington, 
Capt. John Brice and others of equal distinction. 
Among the descendants of the early Davises of 
Maryland are Hon. Henry Gassaway Davis, of 
Maryland and West Virginia ; Mrs. Stephen B. 
Elkins, Miss Katharine Davis Elkins, Messrs. 
Elkins, Mrs. Arthur Lee, Miss Katharine Grace 
Davis Brown, daughter of Lieutenant-Com. 
R. M. G. Brown, United States Navy ; Mrs. F. 
S. Landstreet, of New York ; Mr. John T. Davis, 
of Elkins, W. Va. ; Miss Mary Winter Davis, Miss 
Mary Dorsey Davis and Miss Davis, of Greenwood, 
Montgomery county ; Miss Maria Trimble Davis, 
Mr. George A. Kirby, Miss Mary Hanson Kirby, 
Miss Mallonee, Mrs. George R. A. Hiss, Mr. 
George William Kirby, of New York. 



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